The Three Other Candidates on Your Ballot for New York Governor

The Three Other Candidates on Your Ballot for New York Governor

The Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins is no stranger to the campaign trail. He ran against Cuomo twice before in 2010 and 2014; TheNew York Times reported that he'd lost 23 different elections for posts ranging from Syracuse Common Council to auditor. While he didn't beat Cuomo in either cycle, he said his campaign helped to pressure Cuomo to move left .

"Cuomo couldn't take us for granted. I think that’s why we got the fracking ban we were demanding, paid family leave, at least he’s talking about a $15 dollar minimum wage," he said. Cuomo helped pass the $15 dollar minimum wage legislation in 2016 which is still being phased in across the state.

Hawkins hopes to pressure issues like single payer healthcare, clean energy and raising taxes on the wealthiest one percent of New Yorkers. He wants to use the funds levied from a millionaire's tax to invest in infrastructure like bridges, public housing, and the subway, and to increase school funding.

The Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins is no stranger to the campaign trail. He ran against Cuomo twice before in 2010 and 2014; TheNew York Times reported that he'd lost 23 different elections for posts ranging from Syracuse Common Council to auditor. While he didn't beat Cuomo in either cycle, he said his campaign helped to pressure Cuomo to move left .

"Cuomo couldn't take us for granted. I think that’s why we got the fracking ban we were demanding, paid family leave, at least he’s talking about a $15 dollar minimum wage," he said. Cuomo helped pass the $15 dollar minimum wage legislation in 2016 which is still being phased in across the state.

Hawkins hopes to pressure issues like single payer healthcare, clean energy and raising taxes on the wealthiest one percent of New Yorkers. He wants to use the funds levied from a millionaire's tax to invest in infrastructure like bridges, public housing, and the subway, and to increase school funding.

Stephanie Miner, Serve America Movement

Miner is running as part of the Serve America Movement, which is a relatively new political party founded in 2016 as a response to the Presidential elections. Its leaders say they want to interrupt the two-party system because it doesn't serve the needs of American voters.

Miner was a Democrat when she served as mayor of Syracuse for eight years. But she opted to run as part of the SAM party during this election cycle.

"I was approached by a number of Democrats in the Working Families Party and others to run under their banner, but what I saw was a culture of corruption where both parties have been complicit in it," she said. "I did not want to sacrifice my values for the sake of a partisan label."

She's pushing for an end to corruption, improving infrastructure and more affordable housing. She's running heavily on her track record as mayor of Syracuse, which includes the city's "Say Yes to Education" program, which funds college tuition at local universities for high school graduates.

Larry Sharpe, Libertarian Party

Sharpe runs a management and consulting firm and was on the short list for the national Libertarian party's vice presidential pick. He wants to roll back all kinds of regulations on small businesses. He's proposed to do that by using the question: "Would you ask your friend to do it?"

"Would you ask your friend to braid your hair? Yeah, you probably would. No license. Would you ask your friend to walk your dog? Yeah, you probably would. No license. Would you ask your friend to remove your kidney? Probably not. Get a license," he said. "That is my general rule . . . and any license that doesn't pass that test needs to go away."

Sharpe also wants to open up new industries like hemp and marijuana, and roll back restrictions like the Cuomo's statewide ban on fracking — he thinks it should be up to local communities whether or not they allow it — and the New York's Safe Act, the gun control legislation passed by Cuomo after the Sandy Hook mass shooting. Sharpe takes issue with the part of the law that enlists mental health professionals and doctors to pass the state names of people who shouldn't get access to firearms because he thinks it forces other arms sales into the unregulated black market.

The odds are undoubtedly stacked against these three candidates. A Siena College earlier this month said Cuomo has 50 percent favorability, Molinaro has 28 percent, and Sharpe, Hawkins and Miner have just between one and two percent each.

Still, Miner said she's not daunted.

"It's important to be able to stand up and say that we should not accept the normalization of corruption as part of our government," she said. "There was no sense that this was going to be an easy task, but it’s an important task."

These three candidates and Republican Marc Molinaro will attend a debate hosted by the League of Women Voters in Albany on Nov. 1. It will also be live-streamed for viewers to watch or listen in remotely. Governor Cuomo is the only candidate who hasn't confirmed his attendance. A spokesman for his campaign didn't return a request for comment.